Some embodiments described herein relate generally to switch fabric systems, and, in particular, to methods and apparatus for a control protocol of operations, administration and management/maintenance (OAM) validation over a switch fabric system.
Some known switch fabric systems include a static route OAM mechanism that can verify the effective operation of the control plane elements within a switch fabric system. Such a static route OAM mechanism typically defines a static route, injects it into the control protocol, distributes the static route to a number of network control entities (NCE), and furthermore verifies the distribution of the static route information. Such a static route OAM mechanism, however, introduces inadvertent forwarding state into the switch fabric system that can be disruptive to the data communication. Additionally, after such an attempt of the OAM mechanism, the injected static route information is typically removed manually from each network control entity that has implemented it, which can be cumbersome and costly.
Some known switch fabric systems also include OAM mechanisms that can verify the effective operation of the data plane components (e.g., ping, traceroute, etc.). Such OAM mechanisms typically generate data packets and inject them into the switch fabric network, and verify the operation of the data plane elements by checking whether the injected data packets are successfully delivered to the designated destination or not. Because the control plane has a different topology from the data plane, however, such OAM mechanisms are not applicable to verify the effectiveness of control protocol operations. Additionally, problems in the distribution of control plane information are not always detectable in the operation of the data plane.
Accordingly, a need exists for an OAM mechanism that can be used to verify the operational status of the control plane elements for switch fabric systems without introducing undesirable forwarding state changes or requiring manual modifications of the configurations at associated network control entities. Additionally, a need exists for an OAM mechanism that can be used to verify, in the control plane, the distribution of control plane information.